Lacazette, Saka, Sanllehi - Arsenal's winners and losers if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is sold

Arsenal have a decision to make on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's future this summer

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With the transfer window fast-approaching, the future of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang remains one of the dominant talking points surrounding Arsenal.

The club captain's current deal with the club expires in 2021, meaning he will enter the final year of his contract this summer, which could result in interest in him soaring massively as negotiating powers swing in his favour.

As it stands, he is the Gunners' most valuable player financially and with the financial implications the pandemic is bound to have on football clubs across the globe, this may tempt Arsenal to cut ties this summer.

The 30-year-old's value does stretch much further than finance and the amount of goals he scores, however. Since arriving at the club, he has been key to helping the youngsters settle in the first team, almost like a father-figure within the squad, which could prove invaluable.

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Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have been intent on extending Aubameyang's stay at the club, but his decision will without doubt depend on whether the Gunners qualify for the Champions League alongside other off-field factors.

Here, football.london look at who Arsenal's winners and losers would be if they were to part ways with the man that has been responsible for 42.5 per cent of their Premier League goals this season.

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Winners

Alexandre Lacazette

Despite the pair's exceptional on and off-field relationship, the decision between who stays and goes seems to be one that has many Arsenal fans in favour of keeping Aubameyang.

However, with the way that Arteta as set up his side to play, letting Aubameyang go may prove just how much he values Lacazette. Of course, 2019/20 season has been poor, but the demands on an Arsenal striker now are very much in line with the way the Frenchman plays. The 29-year-old showed the benefits of having a striker of his mould at the club and the fact he was the most rounded of all the fowards at the club meant he stayed in the side for longer than he probably should have.

Arsenal have been heavily reliant on Aubameyang since his arrival in 2018, but this season, it has been shown that his role on the left is something that can be taken up by someone else, and done well. If Arteta decides to trust Lacazette to find his old form once more and take on the role of leading this young attacking core into the future, he could only see it as a positive for himself.

Gabriel Martinelli

Although Aubameyang has taken a key role in helping Martinelli settle in to life at Arsenal, him leaving could be the opportunity he's been waiting for to properly cement himself in Arteta's side.

This season, he has already had spells where he has been undroppable, but with Aubameyang in the side, he has been shunted away from the left wing, where he performed so well when the 30-year-old was suspended in January. Arteta has spoken about the Brazilian playing in all three positions across the frontline but since the Spaniard's arrival, he has looked best coming off the left.

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If the club captain is sold, like during his suspension, Martinelli could step into his role and make it his own. Despite still being 18-years-old, he has proven he can be extremely effective from that wing. Not just in contributing goals and assists but in understanding the movements he has to make to free the left-back and also his defensive work.

Him getting more regular minutes playing a specific role could be great for him at this age.

Bukayo Saka

Similar to Martinelli, Saka may suffer in terms of losing a mentor but neither player can have Aubameyang holding their hand forever, and him leaving could have some positive knock-effects for the 18-year-old.

Despite excelling at left-back, Saka has seemed a tad tentative about fully adopting that as his position. For instance, in Arsenal's Unclassic Commentary show, he didn't totally agree when Eddie Nketiah referred to him as a 'left-back'.

If his desire is to return to the wing, whether it be left or right, Aubameyang leaving would free up another space for him to possibly jump into. For the most part, he'd been playing off the left wing so if Arteta views his future there, battling out with Martinelli - who's already proven himself there - the most realistic situation for the foreseeable future.

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Losers

Raul Sanllehi and Arsenal

There's no escaping the fact that Aubameyang leaving the club will be the worst case scenario for all people involved at the club, from the fans, squad, coaches and decision makers.

More so than the others, however, attention would switch to Raul Sanllehi. This would be because of the public stance he took in regards to player contracts after it was confirmed that Aaron Ramsey would be moving to Juventus on a free transfer.

"One of our priorities is not to get to the last year of contract and this (Ramsey's situation) is the reason why. The only way to get to the end of contract is when you're ready to release that player at the end.

"If you really want to keep that player you need to renew him before getting to the last year of contract because you're putting yourself in a very weak position - we cannot get to the last year of the contract and if we cannot get a renewal before that then we may have to sell."

Although he admitted selling may have to be a possibly, the main problem was that the contract reached its final year. Outlining this as an issue he didn't want to repeat itself, having it happen a year later is far from a good look, especially as it concerns yet another key member of the squad.

With other players in similar situations, it begs the question as to whether their contracts or those in futures years will be sorted on time or will the cycle go on and rear its head each summer.

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Mikel Arteta

This wouldn't be down to anything Arteta had done but simply because he will no longer have such an influential player to call upon in the squad.

In fact, his management of Aubameyang has been one of the main highlights since taking over. The 30-year-old is no longer simply the player Arsenal look to for goals but he's also been acting in the first line of defence, has helped his full-backs massively out of possession and contributes to creating space for others in attack. Add onto this that he's scoring a wider variety of goals [headers in particular] and Arteta has genuinely taken his game to another level.

Losing that impact on the pitch as well as the work he does off it will be a massive blow for Arteta as he looks to build this young squad.

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Youngsters in general

As aforementioned, Aubameyang has been impressive in taking the younger members of the squad under his wing and making them feel comfortable in the first team. Other than him, the biggest example of a player of his stature doing this effectively is David Luiz.

Replacing that aspect of his game will be a huge task and if Arsenal fail to do so, this young squad may waver just as the side of the early 2010s did despite its unquestionable talent.